Spicy flavors, unique textures abound with Ethiopian cuisine

Let's start with the good stuff about Altu's. Despite its exterior — think 1970s Laundromat — inside you will find a place akin to what Hemingway called "a clean, well-lighted place." Reed mats, wicker baskets, palm fronds and a turquoise-and-ivory-colored checkerboard floor give Altu's a real sense of place.

Chivalry still reigns at stalwart Lansing restaurant

I'm a sucker for old restaurants. In a business where restaurants routinely fade to black, you have to admire a place that has outlasted many of its rivals and a good many of its customers. The Knight Cap is such a place; one of the granddaddies of fine dining in Greater Lansing. It opened in 1969, a few blocks east of the Capitol, before Michigan Avenue boasted a ballpark or the Lansing Center.

Resolving a conundrumBy Mark Nixon
If cooking is art, then the beauty of cooking is that each meal presents the artist with a blank canvas.
Therein lies the wonder — or the curse — of many a bistro. Cooking can so easily devolve into widget-making. It becomes a daily slog f...

Small plates go over big at Red Haven

He Ate/She Ate is a new City Pulse food feature starting this week. Each month, the writers will each separately visit a Lansing-area restaurant before "casting their palates" with a qualitative subjective review. He Ate/She Ate will appear in the second issue of every month.